Apple digital key support reportedly coming to Hyundai and BYD cars

What you need to know

Hyundai and BYD look set to be the next companies getting support for digital car keys.
Strings for both carmakers have been found in a configuration file.

It isn’t clear when the feature will be added, but it was previously said to be in the cards for the summer.

Apple is reportedly readying support for digital keys that will unlock Hyindai and BYD vehicles, just as people can already do with other brands including Kia and Genesis — two companies with close ties to at least one of the two carmakers.

MacRumors reports that new strings in an Apple Pay configuration file show support for Hyundai and BYD is coming. The same feature is already available for Genesis and Kia cars — the former is the luxury brand owned by Hyundai while the latter has close ties to the company. While many may not be familiar with KYD, the Chinese carmaker has been trying to expand beyond its borders of late.

It should be noted that support for Genesis cars was outed via a similar configuration change last year. adding credence to this new report.

Apple car key support allows people to lock, unlock, and start their vehicles using nothing more than their iPhone or Apple Watch — and thanks to added support in iOS 15, everything can happen automatically without the need to touch anything. Walking up to a car is enough to unlock it thanks to Ultra Wideband support.

Genesis confirmed that it was adding digital car key support to some vehicles already, while Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggested both firms would be added to the list of supported vehicles by the summer.

Support for unlocking and locking of cars could be the best iPhone and Apple Watch feature yet, especially for those of us who have a history of walking off and forgetting to lock our vehicles!